Last weekend my cousin Rob came to town and I took him to Austin to show off my favorite city. Of course, we had to hit 6th Street. This is Bar Celona. It's a new bar on Sixth Street in Austin. It's in a basement and we really liked it. There were kids break dancing down there! It was pretty cool!

My tape deck in my car is going all fuzzy. I never used it until I got my iPod--the car is 4 years old. It was fine a week ago, but on the way to Austin last weekend, it started getting fuzzy when I used the tape adapter. I thought the 10 year old tape adapter was the problem so I bought a new one on the drive back to Dallas. Nope. That one didn't work either. I tried a tape head cleaner. No good. Any suggestions??? I don't want to replace the stereo. My car is a lease and it's up in January.

My cats now seem to think I am some sort of drifter who occassionally drops some food in their bowl and leaves them with unrefreshed water for the weekends--in two bowls just in case they tip one over while I am gone. And now I am feeling horribly guilty because I am going to leave them for 5 days. And worse, Luka is on medication for an infection I found out he had when I took him to the vet last week for his annual check-up.

It's a good thing I opted to do the optional blood work, because that's how we found out he's sick. So he is on antibiotics. And I am leaving my baby. I feel like the worst parent. But I have to go to New York City to help my grandmother. She is sick. She is going to have open heart surgery for a messed up valve, and she is currently in the hospital because she was supposed to be taking a diuretic to counteract the effects of some other medicine, but she didn't take it like she should and she had to be hospitalized so they could do it for her.

They said she had 15-20 pounds of water weight. She is about 4'7" (she used to be 4'9" but she shrunk...). Can you imagine! That a ton of weight on someone so small.

So my mother, my aunt and I are headed up there to organize. We are going to cook tons of food for her and put it in tupperware and freeze it, and we are going to organize her paperwork which apparently is scattered in piles all over her apartment. We also are going to talk to doctors and sort out what is going on with her and my aunt who works for a hospital assessing patients' needs for when they leave is going to do just that for my grandmother. We also get to talk to social workers about my grandmother's sister. It looks like my great aunt could qualify to have at least part of her home health care nurse paid for by medicare. My grandmother has been paying that out of pocket for years now.

So all in all, it should not be a fun vacation to New York, but I am looking foward to seeing my family at least. But poor Luka has to be boarded because of his medicine. He needs it twice a day for another week. So last night I went to check out a cat boarding place. It's called The Cat Connection. I was a little nervous going in there. I wanted to make sure he would be ok. But as soon as I walked in and told them I wanted to board my cat, the owner immediately took me on a tour. I thought I would have to ask to see everything, but he didn't even give me the chance. The first room we went into is where they check the cats out before boarding them. If any cat has fleas or signs of certain illnesses, they either take precautions or won't board them. Then he showed me the playroom. It is a brightly colored 10 by 10 room of cat toys. It's has carpeted ramps that go up about 6 or 8 feet, toys, a wall of windows looking out onto the street, and get this, a 20 gallon tank with mice living in it behind a glass wall so the cats can sit and watch the mice!!

The main room is a big open room probably about 25 by 25 with "condos" lining the walls, and it smelled quite clean. That immediately made me feel better. There were probably 30 litter boxes in that room but they clean them every hour, so it never gets too stinky. Luka isn't going to know what to do though when he has to cover his own poop. He is used to the Littermaid doing it for him!!

The cats also get a chance during the day to stare at a pair of love birds that are wheeled around the room in their cage from condo to condo throughout the day. And they play music for the cats! I feel badly for having to do this, but I think Luka will be ok, and he will get his medicine on time. Plus, I am going to keep telling myself it's like a vacation for him from Brody. Brody drives him nuts, so he may enjoy being alone for a week. And maybe even appreciate Brody more after this!

But poor scared little Brody is going to be all alone in the house all week long. He is going to be so lonely. But again, he will survive. I just feel so guilty. I could potentially board him with Luka, but A) it would cost twice as much, and B) he would be terrified.

But these are the things we do for family. The human and the furry kinds.